Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

Let me just say, I am a HUGE fan of dim sum! I have it almost every week at our local fresh food market, but have never actually made it myself. So I decided to give it a go this weekend, and it was so much fun!

I decided to go the simple route for my first try, so I just did a basic mixed vegetable filling. Next, I'd like to try some more exciting flavour combinations and introduce fresh herbs, spices and nuts.

I used a pasta maker to roll out my dough. I bought it online for only R120 about 5 years ago and completely forgot about it when we moved house. It made it super quick and easy, but if you don't have one a rolling pin will do just fine. Have some cornstarch available to dust the dough. It is the best flour to use to prevent the dumpling skins from sticking to surfaces and one another.

This recipe makes just over 30 dumplings. You can freeze them for later use, or you can steam them straight away because who can wait, really?

For the skins:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 tsp salt
cornstarch for dusting

Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and create a well in the middle. Use a spoon to incorporate the water as you slowly pour it into the flour. Once the flour and water are combined, form a ball with the dough and knead it for about 3-4 minutes on a clean surface. Wrap with plastic or a clean dishcloth and allow to sit for 30 minutes (you can make the filling in this time).

After allowing the dough to rest, divide it into 4 manageable balls, dust with cornflour and roll to about 2 mm thick with either your rolling pin or pasta maker. Keep the dough you aren't busy with covered so that it doesn't dry out.

Cut the thin sheets of dough into circles with a cookie cutter or a glass. Make sure they are well dusted before stacking them. The remaining dough can be rolled into a ball again to make more sheets. If it seems a bit dry from the cornflour, quickly run the ball under the tap and knead the water through.

Once you have got as many circles as possible (I got 33 exactly and had only a tiny bit of dough left over), you can begin to fill them.

For the filling:

Ingredients:

2 carrots
2 courgettes
1/2 baby Savoy cabbage
6 button mushrooms
handful baby spinach
1/2 purple onion
1 clove garlic
1 small knob ginger
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tbs coconut oil
1 tsp salt

Clean all your veggies and chop them as finely as possible. I cheated and used the chopping function on my food processor, which made it way quicker and easier!

Begin by sauteing the onions, ginger, garlic, chilli, salt and coriander powder in the coconut oil for about 5 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and continue for 5 minutes. Then add all the other ingredients and stir fry for 10 minutes. Taste the mixture, if you feel it needs more seasoning go ahead and add some more salt, a little soy sauce, pepper or spices.

Place the filling in a bowl and allow to cool before you begin your dim sum production line!

Make sure your hands are clean and create a little work space on a large cutting board with your bowl of filling, your pile of dumpling skins and a little bowl of water.

Dip your finger in the water and run around the edge of the skin to allow it to stick together when closing. Place the filling in the middle of the skin (I used about a teaspoon and a half each) and pinch the edges together to create a little half moon. 

Once you have created all your beautiful dumplings, place them in a bamboo steamer on some wax or rice paper. I used wax paper and learned the hard way that it's very important to pierce holes in the paper before steaming, as this helps to prevent the dumplings from sticking.

If you don't own a bamboo steamer (I can highly recommend buying one, I use mine daily), you could use a colander over a pot of water.

Serve with a homemade dipping sauce (I have a great recipe for one here) and a side of fresh coriander or salad. As you can see below, I had none of these things in the house on a late Sunday afternoon, so had them as is with some sweet chilli sauce and they were AWESOME!!

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Baked Zucchini Falafel with Garlic Aioli Dressing

I felt like making something fun for Sunday lunch today, so tweaked one of my favourite nibbles and turned it into a very healthy and uber delicious meal. Falafel, as much as I love it, is usually deep fried and full of unhealthy oil. My version is packed with fresh, nutritious ingredients and is baked to a golden crisp, and the lightly toasted pumpkin, cumin and sunflower seeds give these falafel balls their traditional nutty crunch.

My garlic aioli dressing is made using aquafaba (brine from a can of chickpeas) and is creamy, tangy and super easy to make.

For the Zucchini Falafel

 

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, drained (keep the liquid aside)

8 baby zucchinis (400g)

1 clove garlic, finely crushed

1/2 small purple onion, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 heaped tbs pumpkin seeds

2 heaped tbs sunflower seeds

2 tbs chia seeds

4 tbs chickpea brine

1 tsp Himalayan salt

1 tbs olive oil

Black pepper

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Clean the zucchini thoroughly and grate them all into a bowl. Place the grated zucchini into a sieve or muslin nut bag if you have one, and squeeze as much of the water out of them as possible. Try to catch the liquid in a bowl, it is full of green goodness and you can drink it as a shot or add it to a glass of ice water with lemon for a healthy drink. 

In a small bowl, mix the 4 tbs chickpea brine and 2 tbs chia seeds and set aside. This will be your egg replacement.  

Toast the pumpkin, sunflower and cumin seeds in a dry pan until they are lightly golden. Transfer to a blender and blitz for a few seconds so that they are roughly chopped, but not too fine. You want to retain their crunchiness. 

Place all of the ingredients, i.e. zucchini, chickpeas, seed mix, onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, olive oil, spices and chia egg in a large mixing bowl and, using a potato masher, mix them all together. Using the potato masher helps to break the chickpeas and get all the ingredients to more of a doughy consistency. 

Line a large oven tray with wax paper and roll the "dough" into balls. I made them palm sized and got about twelve out. Bake for about 40 minutes, and in the last few minutes place the tray closer to the top grill and turn the heat up to 250 degrees to give them a golden crisp on top.

For the Garlic Aioli Dressing

Ingredients: 

Brine from 1 can of chickpeas (minus the two tbs you used for the falafel)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp Himalayan salt

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp cream of tartar

Place the brine, crushed garlic, lemon juice, salt and cream of tartar in a blender and blend at high speed for a minute. The liquid should be a whitish colour and slightly frothy. Slowly add the olive oil while blending and once it is fully incorporated, keep blending for another minute.

Serve the falafel with a simple salad of baby spinach,  julienne carrots and beetroot and drizzle with copious amounts of the delicous garlic dressing. Enjoy! xxx 

 

 

Butternut and Chickpea Curry with Crunchy Peanut Butter

This isn't a recipe of my own, but I absolutely have to share it. My friend Michelle had this curry for lunch at work last week and I was blown away when she gave me a little taste. It was funny because I had actually been craving a butternut curry and it was purely coincidental that she was having it that day.

This is a dish I will be repeating. Often.

Ingredients:

3 generous tbs natural crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp tomato paste
zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 medium bunch coriander with stems
3-4 red chillies, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 cm piece fresh ginger
3 tbs coconut oil
2 red onions thinly sliced
1 large butternut, peeled and cubed
1 can light coconut milk
200ml boiling water
1 tsp Himalayan salt
2 tins chickpeas, drained
1/4 cup coconut shavings, toasted in a dry pan

Dissolve the peanut butter in a jug with the boiling water. Add the tomato paste, sugar, soy sauce and lime zest and juice and combine. Set aside.

Remove the leaves from the coriander and keep in a separate bowl. Chop the stems as finely as possible, along with the ginger, garlic and chillies.

Heat the coconut oil in a large pot and fry the onions and salt on medium to high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the butternut cubes and chick peas and stir fry for a further 5 minutes. Then add the chopped coriander stems, ginger, garlic and chilli and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add the coconut milk and peanut butter mix and stir. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the butternut is tender. Stir occasionally while simmering to allow some of the butternut to break and thicken the sauce. Add more soy sauce or salt to taste.

Serve with basmati rice and garnish with the coriander leaves and toasted coconut shavings.

Makes about 6 servings. 

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Polenta Canapes

We recently had a double baby shower at the office, so of course I brought some vegan snacks along so I wouldn't go hungry. Besides the standard carrot and cucumber sticks with homemade hummus, I wanted to bring something special because I enjoy impressing non-vegan people with delicious vegan food. And they were impressed - yay!

These are very simple, but their canape miniature-ness makes them look all fancy and gourmet, and they are very tasty. I used my homemade onion and thyme jam, but this could easily be replaced with a store bought version. I also topped them with some homegrown origanum leaves, which gives a fresh herby flavour.

Ingredients:

1 cup polenta
3 cups boiling water
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1/2 cup vegan mayo (I use B-Well)
1 butternut (you will only use half)
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup onion and thyme jam
1 small bunch fresh origanum

Place the boiling water in a large pot on medium to high heat. Add the polenta and salt and stir consistently until the polenta is fully cooked and as much water as possible has evaporated. You want it to be very thick so that it sets nicely. This takes only about 10-15 minutes.  Pour the polenta into a rectangular dish, about 30cm x 20cm in dimension and smooth with a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon so that is is fairly flat. Leave to cool completely, then place in the fridge to set. I cooked mine a day ahead so that it could set very well, but it should be ready in about three hours if you want to do it in one day.

Cut the long part of the butternut into 1cm thick medallions, coat with olive oil and roast on high heat for about 10 minutes on each side or until it is tender. Allow to cool.

Use a small cookie cutter (mine is blossom shaped and about 3cm in diameter) to cut the polenta into bites and place on a tray. Do the same with the butternut. You should get about two to three per medallion, depending on the diameter of the butternut.

Top the polenta bites with a teaspoon of vegan mayo, then with a piece of butternut, then onion jam and finish off with fresh oreganum leaves. Serve on a pretty platter and let the compliments roll in!

Tip: Coat the polenta off-cuts in a little olive oil and place under the grill for about 15 minutes for some oddly shaped but delicious polenta chips. Use the roast butternut off-cuts in a brown rice, beetroot and rocket salad. No need for waste :)

Nectarine and Cardamom Ice Cream

So I'm pretty much making ice cream every weekend now. I'm so glad because I thought my ice cream machine might be one of those appliances that gets lost in the dark depths of the kitchen cupboards, never to be seen again. But no, the results are always so delicious and I guess the hot weather plays its part too.

All the beautiful Summer fruits are in stores now, which gets me so excited! One of my favourites is nectarines. I love peaches, but I squirm just at the thought of that furry skin! The tartness of the nectarines actually make this ice cream taste more like a frozen yoghurt, which was a lovely surprise. I paired it with cardamom and a coconut milk base for a very refreshing frosty dessert.

Ingredients:

1 can light coconut milk
5 nectarines
10 cardamom pods
3 tbs xylitol or vegan friendly sugar

Remove the pip from the nectarines and chop roughly. Extract the seeds from the cardamom pods. I use a pair of scissors to cut the pod length ways and then push the seeds out of each half. Place the coconut milk, cardamom seeds, nectarine flesh and sweetener in a blender and blend til smooth.

Churn for about 20 minutes if you have an ice cream machine. Alternatively, place in a container in the freezer and stir every hour until reaching the desired consistency.

I found that this ice cream froze quite solid (I think it is because it doesn't contain much fat) though it was still okay to scoop because I churned it. As a solution, you could use this recipe in popsicle molds instead.

Enjoy and have fun! xxx

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Roasted Tahini and Onion & Thyme Jam

These two condiments are on my "always-have-in-the-fridge" list lately because they are uber tasty, convenient, and I know what's in them. So many commercial products are packed with unnatural additives that I don't really want to put in my body, so it feels great using something that I know is clean and natural.

Both the tahini and onion jam are incredibly versatile and are wonderful to add to savoury rice dishes, soups, to drizzle over roast vegetables, or even to spread on toast for a quick snack. I sometimes even heat the tahini with a little xylitol to make a halva type sauce to use over my homemade ice cream.

Also, with the Festive Season approaching, these make adorable gifts for family and friends. Go on, give a vegan gift and spread the deliciousness!

For the Roasted Tahini

Ingredients:

250g sesame seeds
1 - 1 1/2 cups olive oil

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C. Place the sesame seeds evenly on a large oven tray and roast in the oven for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. When they are golden brown (keep an eye on them so that they don't burn), remove the tray and allow to cool.

Pour the seeds into a blender and add enough olive oil to almost cover the seeds. Blend at high speed until it forms a runny-ish paste, adding more olive oil to get it moving if necessary. Your blender might struggle a little, I blend mine in intervals and use a spoon to scrape the sides in between.

Store in a clean glass jar in the fridge. Should last for at least two weeks, if you can manage to not eat it for that long.

For the Onion and Thyme Jam

Ingredients:

4 large white onions
1 small beetroot
4 tbs olive oil
20g fresh Thyme
1/2 cup dried currants
1 cup brown sugar or xylitol
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 generous pinches Himalayan salt

Peel the onions and cut in half, and then into thin slices. Place in a large pot with the olive oil salt. Stir thoroughly so that the onions are all coated in oil before heating. Cook on medium heat with the lid on, stirring every few minutes until the onions are translucent - approx 20 minutes. They shouldn't turn brown, so make sure the heat is not too high.

Tip: When cooking onions, adding salt helps to draw the liquids out, making them go soft and translucent more quickly. 

Add the thyme, sugar, vinegar and currants and mix. Peel the  beetroot, cut into quarters and add to the pot. The beetroot is just for colour and will be removed later. Using purple onions would have the same effect, but I only had white onions in the house at the time.

Another tip: Picking thyme leaves can be quite tedious and finicky. I put the whole bunch into a large bowl of water and scrub it together until a lot of the leaves come off. I then take the bunch of twigs out with my hands and pour the water through a sieve to catch the little leaves. Repeat a few times until you get most of the leaves off. You may still have to strip some of the twigs to get the last leaves off, but if you don't feel like the effort, you can keep the twigs in the freezer and add them to a vegetable stock. 

Cook the jam on low heat for two hours, stirring every 10 minutes or so. It is ready when the jam is thick and sticky. Once cooled, store in a clean glass jar. This should also last about two weeks in the fridge.

Pomegranate and Strawberry Popsicles

There is a gentle haze in the air that is making me feel nostalgic. It's that Summer heat that reminds me of perfect childhood holidays at the lake. I'm craving the smell of sunscreen, the cool freshness of jumping into the water and of course, ice cream!

Last weekend, while the sun was blazing, I made the popsicles I'd been dreaming up all week. Coconut milk, strawberries and pomegranate, dipped in dark chocolate. I made at least four stops on the way home to find a popsicle mold, but worth the effort it was!

Ingredients:

2 pomegranates
250g fresh strawberries, washed
1 can coconut milk
1 cup xylitol or vegan friendly sugar
100g slab vegan dark chocolate

Slice the pomegranates in half. Keep one half aside for decorating. Remove the seeds from the other three halves and place in a blender. Blend to a fine pulp. Strain the juice into a bowl through a sieve or muslin bag.

After rinsing the blender jug, add the pomegranate juice, coconut milk, strawberries and sugar. Blend until very smooth. Pour into the popsicle mold and freeze overnight.

Note: Depending on how many popsicles your mold makes, you will probably have some mixture left over. My mold only made four, so I had enough mixture left to make two big bowls of ice cream in my churner. If you prefer to make it all into lollies, you may need to do it in batches or buy more than one mold.

Once your lollies are completely frozen, melt your chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water (see how I do it here). Allow the chocolate to cool as much as possible, without hardening again.

Unfortunately it's not quite as easy as simply dipping the lollies into the chocolate, as it tends to slide off. I used a teaspoon to pour chocolate over the top of each one and kind of had to smear to get it to stick. I then dipped it into the remaining pomegranate seeds, which also was a little tricky but a fun experiment!

Eat straight away or pop them back in the freezer on a plate for later (as if!). Enjoy! xxx